Ali Amirrezvani

Google has just bought Zagat, a company that provides ratings and reviews of restaurants, entertainment venues, and travel locations.  Known primarily for their yearly restaurant book guides, they have been doing quite well with their online subscription based site and community.

Google plans for Zagat to be the “cornerstone of our local offering”, helping them  to compete directly with Yelp and other online review sites.  Think it was a coincidence that Google recently removed these other review sites from their Google Local pages and search results?

While Zagat doesn’t have a history of rating small businesses, like car dealerships, this only adds to the credibility that Google Reviews will continue to have.  Google seems to realize that online reviews are becoming more and more important to consumers, and doing all they can to make their offering the most trusted, reliable, and complete place to find review information.

So, what is your dealership doing to make sure your customers looking for dealer reviews will find your dealership on Google?

Google is at it again.  According to the Google Operating System Blog, an unofficial source of news and tips about Google, the search engine giant will soon be launching Google Trusted Stores.  This new service is designed to make it “easy for online shoppers to identify stores that provide an excellent online shopping experience.”

I have to wonder how closely this will be tied to the reviews a business receives.  Or perhaps, it will be a reflection of a business’ AdWord spend or a completely separate offering.  There is a lot of speculation on what this new feature will really entail since the landing page google.com/trustedstores isn’t live.

If I had to guess, I’d say Trusted Stores will be similar to what already exists in the automotive industry: all businesses will be a part of the offering, using reviews to help rank which are more “trusted” than others.  And of course, an option for businesses to pay to be a highlighted trusted source.

What do you think?  Is this another way to force businesses to focus on Google Reviews, or could this be a valuable way to differentiate your auto dealership from those around you?

Within the past year, Maryland has been hit by an earthquake and a hurricane (in the same week!), as well as a huge snowstorm, all fairly uncommon occurrences in our state.  While DealerOn, both the office and our employees, were lucky enough to dodge any real damage, it definitely made us all think about how prepared we are for these kinds of emergencies.

DealerOn had enough warning before Hurricane Irene (and dodged damage from the earthquake) to ensure our account managers were set up to work remotely if necessary.  That way we knew that all of our customers’ dealership websites wouldn’t be affected, and we could continue to provide the exceptional customer service on which we pride ourselves.  And while we were lucky to avoid damage, many in our area were not, and are still without power.

After a natural disaster, your first priority will obviously be to ensure your friends, family, and co-workers are safe.  But after that?  Here are some things to think about to keep your dealership up and running:

Who is expected to report to work?  What if they can’t get there?  What are your leave policies for those without power, damaged homes, etc?

How will you let your employees know if you are open for business?  Does a phone tree exist?  Will you have every employee call you to report their status?

What about dealership customers that have appointments set?  Is your service manager responsible for contacting his/her customers, and a sales manager responsible for contacting theirs?

Taking the time to think about, plan, and inform your dealership staff about these things could reduce a huge headache (as well as save money) after a natural disaster.  As we recently learned ourselves, no natural disaster scenario (or two) is too far-fetched.

How prepared for such an emergency is your dealership?  For those affected by Irene, what steps did your dealership take to get ready?

Some of DealerOn’s car dealer website customers are incorporating QR codes on their sites, though it remains a technology that’s still maturing.  While others in the industry have debated the benefits of using QR codes as a part of your dealership’s marketing strategy, I wanted to share some tips for running a QR Code campaign if your dealership is going to test this technology.

Before you start any marketing campaign, including one using QR codes, it is essential that your dealership lays out your goals.  What are the business or marketing objectives you hope to accomplish with the QR code campaign?  For example, are you looking to increase your email list or increase traffic on your mobile website?  If you don’t determine what you’re hoping to accomplish, you won’t be able to tell whether or not the campaign is successful.

Make sure you test your QR code extensively.  If someone tries to use your code and it doesn’t work, it’s similar to someone trying to click a broken link on your website.  That user isn’t likely to seek out that information elsewhere on your site…they will just move on to the next dealership.  Make sure your codes are big enough, and have enough “clean” space around them.  Test them where they will appear (on a window sticker, for example) to help ensure they can be read in the environment that your customers will be scanning them.

Link the QR codes to a mobile landing page.  I’ve written about the importance of having mobile dealership websites before, but when you know people have to use their mobile phones to scan QR codes, it doesn’t make any sense to send them to a traditional website page.  These are just some basic best practices for QR codes.  Have you used any other standard processes that you’d recommend for QR Code Marketing campaigns?